Ward Book to Air as Documentary

I' ve just received word that Michael Ward's book, Planet Narnia, has been turned into a documentary by Norman Stone and will air on the BBC next year. Wow! Congratulations, Michael! For more information you can read this article.
Here's another article.

Dr. Wood Lectures Available

In October, the Humanitas Forum on Christianity and Culture hosted a series of lectures by Dr. Ralph C. Wood, Professor of Theology and Literature at Baylor University. The meeting was held at St. George's Episcopal Church in Nashville and the topic was "C. S. Lewis on Love, Desire and the Demonic." The Humanitas Forum has just posted free mp3's on their website of Dr. Wood's lectures, and you can listen to them by clicking here. Outlines of his lectures are also available. Other materials on Lewis by Dr. Wood may be obtained by going here.

Our November Meeting with Rogers

Dr. Jonathan Rogers and Rev. Beckmann

We had a great time last night with Dr. Jonathan Rogers, author of the The World According to Narnia, and the Wilderking trilogy. It was worthwhile having the meeting for all the kids that came out who are big Wilderking fans. They were so excited to meet Jonathan and get their books signed. We had close to 40 people attending and, as usual, Rock Point Books pulled out all the stops, with coffee, wine, cheese, etc.

Will Vaus Tour Blog

To keep up with how Will is doing with his book tour, you can go here. He had a very kind entry for his visit to our Society.

Kreeft on the Timing of Lewis' Death

Peter Kreeft thinks it no coincidence that JFK, C.S.Lewis, and Aldous Huxley all died with in a few hours of one another; they each represented major world views. To hear the audio of his comments, click here - thanks to National Review Online.

We now have a Facebook Group

Join up and share the news!

Will Vaus at Our October '08 Meeting

We had a very pleasant meeeting with Will Vaus, author of a new biography on C. S. Lewis, entitled The Professor of Narnia. For information on Will's new book, you can go to his book blog. Be sure to check out his Mere Theology blog as well. Rock Point Books, (4th and Broad in downtown Chattanooga) still has signed copies of Will's book, so be sure to go over and get one.

C. S. Lewis Books Blog

If you've not seen it, be sure to check out the Harper Collins C. S. Lewis Books blog. The description of the blog is as follows:

"This blog, officially part of HarperOne's CSLewis.com, offers original work on and about C. S. Lewis from scholars who have written far and wide about his stories, his theology, and his world. We are in line to add new entries every few weeks...."

Good stuff!

The Personal Heresy Available Again

This just in from Joel Heck of Columbia University:

On behalf of Concordia University Press, I would like to announce the reprint release of the C.S. Lewis-E.M.W. Tillyard work, The Personal Heresy. The book was first published in 1939 and later reprinted in 1965, but it has been out of print for quite some time. I would appreciate it if you would do one or more of several things: first, purchase a personal copy; second, ask your library (university library or local library) to purchase a copy; third, tell your friends and acquaintances who are interested in the works of Lewis, especially in a newsletter if you edit one; fourth, if you teach Lewis, consider adopting this book as a textbook for your class.

New features of this edition: (1) an Introduction by Bruce Edwards that places the work in historical context and explains its significance, (2) an Index, and (3) an additional set of footnotes that explains most foreign language and literary allusions. All of these additions should make the work more accessible to the reader.

Available in its first reprint since 1965, The Personal Heresy: A Controversy originally published in 1939, comprises the exchange of essays between C. S. Lewis and E. M. W. Tillyard in which the literary critics argue opposing positions on what can or should be gained from the reading of poetry. Bruce Edwards sees in this work a consistent Lewisian theme, “championing as it does the cogency of the doctrine of objective value” (“The Personal Heresy: A Controversy,” in The C. S. Lewis Readers’ Encyclopedia, pp. 318f.).

Lewis responds to Tillyard’s assertion in his 1930 publication Milton that “[a]ll poetry is about the poet’s state of mind.” Lewis argues that in poetry we see what the poet sees, not the poet himself. Lewis writes, “When we read poetry as poetry should be read, we have before us no representation which claims to be the poet, and frequently no representation of a man, a character, or a personality at all.”

To order your copy, with an Introduction by Dr. Bruce L. Edwards, send US$19.95 plus US$4.00 for shipping and handling within the contiguous forty-eight states, or US$6.00 outside the forty-eight states to Dr. Joel Heck, Concordia University Press, 3400 N. Interstate 35, Austin, Texas 78705, with a check payable to “Concordia University Press.”

Pauline Baynes has passed on

It has been reported that Pauline Baynes, famous for her illustrations of Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and several of Tolkien's books, has died just before her 86th birthday. She died at her home in Surrey. Let us give thanks to the Lord for her gifts and pray for the comforts of Christ for her family.
For a review of her life and work, you may read this article on the Guardian website.

Image from Into the Wardrobe.

Michael Ward Comments on Prince Caspian

A brief article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Mars Hill Audio also has an hour-long interview with Michael Ward on their site: http://www.marshillaudio.org/catalog/con025.asp

Be sure to check the News section of Michael's Planet Narnia website for all the interviews and articles that are exploding on the internet about his work.

Lewis on Mysticism

Dick Staub has an interview with Rev. Earl Palmer on the topic "C. S. Lewis Looks at Mysticism." The focus is on Lewis' comments on mysticism in his book Letters to Malcolm. You can hear it here.

Times Free Press Article

Our local newspaper ran an article in their "Life" section a few days before our last meeting about our Society and Prince Caspian. You can read the article by going here.

Ward on Hewitt

Hooray! Michael Ward's book is featured on Hugh Hewitt's blog and he's on the program today. Congratulations, Michael! See the Podcasts link to hear the interview. Look for the May 6 podcast.

May 23, 2008, Meeting

On Friday, 23 May, at Rock Point Books we met to discuss the book and movie Prince Caspian. About 45 people were in attendance. We had folks who had read the book but had not seen the movie and some who had seen the movie but not read the book. Rev. Beckmann read a paper on Prince Caspian, which you can download as a WORD document by clicking here. Only one person thought Prince Caspian the best of the series, which is not surprising. We discussed the book and the movie afterwards. A good time was had by all and we look forward to starting our meetings back up in September.

Go here for the official Prince Caspian website.

Image: www.narniaweb.com

Nigel Goodwin Interview

Dick Staub has a fascinating and inspiring interview with British actor Nigel Goodwin at his website, The Kindlings Muse. It's about an hour and 15 minutes long. So, set the time aside, sit down and enjoy.

Image from www.cslewis.org

Michael Ward Visit

The Rev. Dr. Michael Ward, author of Planet Narnia, visited us in early April. His insights into The Chronicles of Narnia are amazing. We had a very good time together. Below are the main events which were held.

Dr. Michael Ward talking to students at Covenant College. From left to right, flanking Dr. Ward, are Aaron Messner, College Chaplain, Dr. Debbie Higgins of Southern Adventist University, and Dr. Pat Ralston of Covenant.

Wednesday, 9 April - Dr. Ward arrived in the area and spoke at Southern Adventist University. We had an overflow crowd - 200+ - at the auditorium - it was great! Lots of conversation and book signing afterward - sold out! By the way - Michael's book is in its third printing already!
Thursday, 10 April - Dr. Ward was at Covenant College today: Michael gave an interesting lecture on medieval cosmology in a class and then an inspiring message in the chapel.
Friday, 11 April - At Rock Point Books. Book signing began around 6:00 P.M. At 7:00 P.M., Dr. Ward gave his Planet Narnia presentation. After 8:15 P.M. or so, he signed more books. There were about 78 people in attendance! Great turn out - great meeting!

Dr. Ward signing books at our meeting of the Society, Rock Point Books.

Sunday, 13 April - 10:00 A.M., Michael preached in the morning service at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Blue Ridge, GA. At 6:00 P.M., Michael preached at St. George's Anglican Church.

For more information on Michael, his book, and his tour of the U.S., visit www.planetnarnia.com .

Books & Culture Review of Planet Narnia

Go here to read it.

Lewis Talk: Fairy Tales: Worlds of Imagination in the Writings of Tolkien and Lewis

Rev. Beckmann reads his Past Watchful Dragons paper.

Tues. 25 Mar.: It looks like Podomatic is having trouble keeping our podcast banner online. We'll see what can be done to fix this. In the meantime, you can go here for our Podomatic podcasts. Our podcast is also available via I-Tunes, if you want to use that.

Robinson Review of Planet Narnia

Bruce Edwards has this week posted a review of Michael Ward's Planet Narnia. Give it a read.

Our March '08 Meeting

Autumn flora in the front of the Kilns.

With about 20 people in attendance, Dr. Debbie Higgins, English professor at Southern Adventist University, gave us some peeks into her dissertation on Anglo/Saxon mead hall culture and a series of slides on the Kilns and her experiences in Oxford. Her dissertation is a feast for Tolkien fans and we hope she will be able to get it published. Many thanks to Michael Ake of McCallie School for help with the PowerPoint presentation.
Sadly, the CD recorder didn't work - again! So I will not have a recording of the meeting on our podcast. In its stead, I'll soon provide a recording of my presentation at the Past Watchful Dragons conference at Beaumont University a couple of years back.
Everything seems set for our April meeting with Michael Ward. Hope to see you there!

Window in the Garden Wall

Some of you all may appreciate this blog - occasional excerpts from Lewis' writings:
Window in the Garden Wall.

Dr. Jerry Root on Lewis

Dr. Jerry Root talks about C. S. Lewis on the Kindlings Muse website. The interview is in three segments, on two separate pages of the blog (a little inconvenient). You can find segment one here.

Brochure for UTC Lewis Lecture '08

You can view the brochure for this year's UTC C. S. Lewis Lecture with Timothy George by clicking here (.pdf file).

News on This Year's UTC Lewis Lecture

I have just learned from Mr. Henry Henegar of the CCC Foundation that the topic for this year's UTC C. S. Lewis Lecture will be "Theology for an Age of Terror." The speaker will be Dr. Timothy George. The meeting will be at UTC, March 31 (7:30). I suspect the lecture will again be at the Benwood Auditorium. I'll be sure to post more information here as it becomes available.
For more information on Dr. George, you may visit the Beeson Seminary website.

Podcast of January, '08, Meeting

We had a good meeting last night at Rock Point Books, our first for this year. We had 40 to 50 people to attend and the venue worked out very well.
You can listen to a recording of our meeting by clicking on the "badge" below, or you can scroll down to the Podomatic player on the right hand side of this page. Lewis Talk is also on I-Tunes, if you want to use that. I'm sorry you cannot hear the questions from the audience; we'll work on that in the future.
Our next meeting is only 3 weeks away, so make your plans to attend.

Our Next Meeting This Friday, the 18th

Why should Christians read fairy tales? What good do they do? Why did Lewis like them and write them? Are they perhaps more important than we realise? Why did Jesus tell stories? What is the nature of God's revealed truth?
These are some of the questions that Art Crouch and I will discuss, along with our guests, at our next meeting of the Society. See my previous posts for more details.
We will be at Rock Point Books, located at 4th & Broad Street, Friday the 18th, at 7:00 P.M. Rock Point also features good coffee, biscotti, scones, and the like. Come join us and bring a friend!

Bruce Edwards Blog

Here's an important blog I'll have linked to our website and that you will want to bookmark. Bruce Edwards, a leading C. S. Lewis "scholar" has a blog: C. S. Lewis & the Inklings. One of the most important things he has up right now is a link to the audio of four lectures given at the C.S. Lewis conference at Southeastern Baptist Seminary, October, 2007. Two of them are by none other than Walter Hooper himself - a must listen!